Rove trap; Open Thread.

"This is really about a constitutional question of separation of powers," Rove said Sunday. "Congress, the House Judiciary Committee, wants to be able to call presidential aides on its whim up to testify."

1. What is the separation of powers? Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial.

2. What is executive privilege?
Executive privilege is the power claimed by the President and other members of the executive branch to resist certain search warrants and other interventions by the legislative and judicial branches of government.

3. Who are part of executive branch?

From Bush's website: The Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments-the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, and the Attorney General. Under President George W. Bush, Cabinet-level rank also has been accorded to the Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency; Director, Office of Management and Budget; the Director, National Drug Control Policy; and the U.S. Trade Representative.

4. What is wrong with Rove's claim of executive privilege?

a. In a 1999 Minnesota Law Review article, Mark Rozell, Professor at George Mason University's School of Public Policy said that executive privilege is "the right of the President and high-level executive branch officers to withhold information from Congress, the courts, and ultimately the public."

b. In the Executive Branch, Josh Bolten holds the highest-ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President. Bolten is the White House Chief of Staff to Bush. Rove was the Deputy Chief of Staff [which has made it differcult for House committee to subpoena Bolten to testify].

In a nutshell, Rove and other White House aides are not protected under executive privilege. Nice try, Karl.